Think, Tink or Sink, the Phonological Awareness of English Voiceless Interdental Fricative [θ] and [ð] Among Chinese, Arab and Pakistani Learners of English

Abstract

Phonology means the sounds of a language, how they are organized to form words. Phonological consciousness is that talent to understand and recognize that words and phrases comprise of different sound units [33]. The target of this study is to research the Phonological awareness of the English Voiceless Interdental Fricative [θ] and [ð] sounds Among Chinese, Arab and Pakistani learners of English. Twelve respondents took part in this study six respondents from China, four from Pakistan and two respondents from Egypt. A wordlist was given. This list consists of 50 words terms of dental fricatives [θ] and [ð] sounds. This wordlist selected mostly from common vocabulary to give the respondents the feeling of relaxing and unknowing what vocabulary would be analyzed. An evaluation paper ready-made adapted from a study for the fulfillment of the requirement for the master degree of arts [36]. The results state the dental fricatives [θ] and [ð] are replaced by /the/ and /d/ by most respondent especially the Pakistani and Chinese learners.